


Showed you all of my hiding spots

by Saltedkiss



Series: Merthur Week 2020 [4]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Chance Meetings, Childhood Friends, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, I know this was supposed to be FUN but this is what it turned into, M/M, Merthur - Freeform, Merthur Week 2020, Summer Camp, Uther Pendragon's A+ Parenting (Merlin), merthurweek2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28315098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saltedkiss/pseuds/Saltedkiss
Summary: “Arthur Pendragon, is that you?”The blond man turned around, a surprised look on his handsome face.“Merlin?” The blond asked, searching the crowd for the person who’d called out to him. Merlin grinned. It really was him. He hadn’t expected to see the man again, and was definitely baffled at how he’d recognized Merlin’s voice before seeing him. It had been years since they last met.Arthur grinned, revealing a set of pearly white teeth. One of them was slightly crooked. Just as Merlin remembered.Written for Merthurweek 2020Day 4: “What are you hiding Merlin?” + Fun
Relationships: Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Merthur Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2066913
Comments: 26
Kudos: 164
Collections: Merthur Week 2020





	Showed you all of my hiding spots

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hidden_snitch_in_an_alcove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hidden_snitch_in_an_alcove/gifts).



> For [my dear friend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hidden_snitch_in_an_alcove). The theme is people hiding stuff. How could I not think of you.   
> Merry Christmas  
> <3

“Arthur Pendragon, is  that you?” 

The blond man turned around, a surprised look on his handsome face. 

“Merlin?” The blond asked, searching the crowd for the person who’d called out to him. Merlin grinned. It really was him. He hadn’t expected to see the man again, and was definitely baffled at how he’d  recognized Merlin’s voice before seeing him. It had been years since they last met. 

Arthur grinned, revealing a set of pearly white teeth. One of them was slightly crooked. Just as Merlin remembered. 

***

They had met almost twenty years ago, when they were both twelve. Merlin and his mum had gone through a difficult period after Merlin’s dad had passed away. Even though they’d struggled to get by financially, Merlin remembered her unconditional love and selflessness as she did her best to make ends meet. As a result of a social welfare program, Merlin had been selected to go to something called Camelot Summer Camp, or  Clotpole Camp, as he’d called it. There, he’d get to meet kids from all over the country, his mum had told him. Each Monday there would be a list of fun things he could choose from. The food was supposed to be great and the camp site was in the Lake District, so he’d be right where his dad had once proposed to his mum. Merlin absolutely hated the idea of spending a summer away from his mum, but it had soon become evident how much Hunith had wanted Merlin to go, so he had a chance to participate in all the fun activities the camp would organise during the summer. She didn’t have to say it, but it was clear how much she wanted this for Merlin, since there was no way she’d be able to pay for any of it herself. Merlin had dreaded going. He didn’t want to be separated from his best friend Will for two months. Didn’t want to pretend he fit in with the prats who probably had butlers and private fencing instructors and whatever else rich kids had, growing up. 

Merlin had felt horrible during his first week there. His fears of not fitting in had been confirmed almost immediately. Merlin had been amazed by the various different foods he got to try, while the rich kids complained about there not being any poached eggs for breakfast. The room he shared with three other boys was bigger than the flat he and his mum lived in, and yet they’d complained about having to make their own beds. And when the first Monday’s list of activities they’d get to choose from had been put up on the notice board, Merlin had been about to punch someone for complaining about how “pedestrian” it all seemed. As if they got to go horseback riding every week. Although, as Merlin had later found out, most of them actually did. At least, no one had mentioned their butlers, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have any.

It had taken Merlin a while to get used to it all. He’d picked fights at first. With one boy in particular. Arthur – Lord Prat – Pendragon. He’d been the loudest of them all. The rudest. The first one to complain and to be cruel to the camp leaders – he called them the staff  – without any reason to do so. At all. After a while, things had gotten so out of hand that they’d actually gotten into a fist fight. One of the camp leaders had separated them and had made it perfectly clear that they had a choice. Although it had sounded more like an ultimatum to Merlin at the time. 

Either the camp leaders would contact the boys’ parents and notify them of the trouble they’d gotten into or they could sign up for team building exercises for the coming week. Merlin had groaned and had looked at Lord Prat, who’d glared back from underneath his swelling brow. Merlin had smiled when he remembered hitting the other boy just right, and was still so hyped from the adrenaline he almost didn’t feel how much smiling hurt his split lip. They’d looked at each other and had nodded at the same time. 

“Fine,” Merlin had grunted.

“Splendid,” Arthur groaned. 

And that had been the end of it. 

The team building exercise had begun right away. The boys had been asked to pack a backpack with clothes for two days and put on their hiking shoes, after which one of the leaders had driven out into the woods with them and told them to get out of the car. They’d been given a map that held directions to a cabin in the woods where their dinner would be waiting. And had been sent on their way. 

The hike had been silent, the snapping branches under their feet and the rustling of the leaves around them the only sound to be heard for hours. Every now and then one of them would tell the other to stop so they could have a drink or redo their shoe laces. So much for team building, Merlin had thought. When they got to the cabin they’d spend the night in, a leader had been waiting for them. Her hopeful smile quickly disappeared when she noticed the boys’ scowls. She’d given them everything they needed to cook dinner together and had told them she’d be back the next morning with breakfast and directions back to the camp. 

They ate in silence, then took turns in the bathroom and went to bed. Merlin took a small wooden figure out of his bag and put it on his bedside table. 

“That’s cool,” he heard the other boy say. “I like dragons.”

“Me too. My dad made it.”

“Cool.”

“He died.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Last year.”

Merlin switched the lights off. Neither of them said anything. Merlin thought the other boy had fallen asleep, when he heard Arthur’s voice from the other side of the room.

“My mum died the day I was born.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. My dad says it’s my fault she’s dead.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. We don’t talk much. He tries to get rid of me whenever he has the chance. I’ll be shipped off to boarding school at the end of the summer.”

“He sounds like an ass.”

Arthur’s laughter at Merlin’s insult held a hint of sadness. “He is,” Arthur murmured.

“Sounds like it, yeah. I brought skittles. Do you want some?”

And that had been the start of their friendship. They’d spent the rest of the night talking and eating way too much sugar. The leader had dropped the bag holding their breakfast when she came into the cabin and heard them giggle. 

The rest of the summer had passed far too quickly. The next Monday, they chose the same activities from the list, even though Arthur grumbled when he put his name down next to “Friendship bracelets” and Merlin made it perfectly clear he thought archery wasn’t even a real sport. Merlin and Arthur became thick as thieves. They spent as much time together as they could during the days and regularly snuck out of their rooms to go hang out together after bed time too. Their roommates, Percy, Lance,  Gwaine , Elyan and Leon were more than happy to participate in the mischief. 

And then, one day, it was all over. Arthur’s butler – because of course he really did have one – arrived about thirty minutes before Merlin’s bus would leave. 

“I’ll write to you every week,” Merlin promised Arthur after what had been the best summer of his life. 

“Me too,” Arthur said with a sniffle.

Merlin waved until long after the Pendragon family’s car had left around the bend. When he finally dropped his hand, he stared the red and blue friendship bracelet Arthur had made for him to match the one he’d gotten from Merlin, until his vision blurred. 

***

Merlin hadn’t expected the conversation to go on longer than the typical empty hi-how-are-you. Hadn’t expected the connection he’d once felt with the Pendragon boy to rekindle within minutes of meeting him again. 

But it did. 

They had tried to keep in touch over the years. Had written each other weekly at first, then monthly. Then, eventually they’d ended up writing each other once every year, at Christmas time, when each of them would pick out the most ridiculous Christmas card they could find, in an attempt to outdo the other. 

Merlin was amazed at how easily the conversation flowed, at how much they still had in common. At how Arthur’s unbridled laughter still made him want to lean his head back and join in. Their chance encounter could have ended within minutes. When Merlin had spotted the gold hair on Arthur’s head, Arthur had been on his way to a meeting. Merlin had been on his way home to spend the night on the sofa with his cat, Aithusa. They could have done that and made empty promises to each other about meeting up later. 

But they didn’t. Arthur had cancelled the meeting and had called his hotel to inform them he’d be checking in later than planned. They’d ended up in a pub together, where they had lunch, dinner and more beers than they could count. 

Arthur’s presence felt like a warm blanket on a cold December evening. It felt familiar and comforting, although Merlin was pretty damn sure the heated looks Arthur gave him were new. Very new indeed. 

Somewhere during the evening, something had shifted between them. It had started with Merlin showing Arthur the tribal tattoo on his arm. Arthur’s fingers had traced the shape of the triskelion, raising the hairs on Merlin’s arm. His fingers had continued to brush Merlin’s arm and his hand somehow found Merlin’s in the process. He had squeezed it and Merlin had winked. Arthur had held onto Merlin’s hand as he pulled him up to head to the dance floor. Neither of them seemed to care that no one else was dancing. Merlin wrapped his arm around Arthur’s waist and felt Arthur’s hand slide upwards between his shoulder blades. Merlin licked his lips and looked into Arthur’s cerulean eyes. When their lips touched, Merlin had the odd sensation of coming home. 

“Coffee?” Merlin asked as he popped his head into his room to look at the perfectly sculpted man in his bed, only to have a pillow thrown in his direction.

“It’s the middle of the night, come back to bed,” Arthur grumbled, “and bring back my pillow, will you?”

“It’s almost noon.” Merlin smiled, “but I’m not saying no to round three.”

Arthur held up the blanket so Merlin could slide back into bed with him. Merlin sighed at the warmth that enveloped him, turned to Arthur just so he could revel in it some more and - 

“Merlin! Your feet are freezing!” 

Merlin chuckled.

“Oh you’re paying for this,” Arthur growled as he rolled over and pinned Merlin down on the bed.

“Promises, promises.” 

Merlin lifted his head to kiss Arthur, who was already more than ready for him.

“Condoms. Where?”

“Bedside cabinet.”

Arthur leaned to the side and opened a drawer. Merlin licked his lips in anticipation when he remembered what else was in the drawer. He pulled at Arthur’s shoulder and crawled out from under him. But he was already too late. Arthur held up a small wooden box. He’d started to open the lid.

“Merlin, what the –” Arthur’s question was cut short when Merlin slammed the box shut. 

Arthur sat up slowly, confusion clear on his face. He looked at the box. Merlin could tell the exact moment Arthur recognised the Camelot Summer Camp logo on it.

“No condoms in there,” Merlin tried to joke, “let’s get back to what we were doing befo-”

“What are you hiding, Merlin?”

“Nothing.”

“Right.”

Arthur sat up and opened the box he’d found next to Merlin’s bed. His eyes widened as he looked from the box’ contents to Merlin and back. Merlin closed his eyes as he remembered what was in it. 

He opened them again when he heard paper rustling. Arthur had taken out the box’ contents and carefully went through the letters he’d found inside.

“Are these...?”

“All of them.”

Arthur put the letters and the Christmas cards on the bed, careful not to crease them, and took something from the bottom of the box. He held up a worn friendship bracelet. 

The red and blue threads had faded over the years. 

Arthur and Merlin locked eyes. They both stayed perfectly still, until Arthur got up. Without saying a word, he picked up the jeans he’d dumped in the corner of Merlin’s room the night before. For a moment Merlin was scared he’d spooked the man into leaving. Until Arthur took something out of the pockets of his jeans, a set of keys, by the sound of it. He held up the keys and urged an extremely confused Merlin to look at them. Merlin blinked. Dangling from the set of keys, he saw a tattered old bracelet he’d once made in their favourite colours. 

Without saying a word, Arthur put the letters back in the box. He took the two bracelets and put them in there with the letters he’d once written. He closed the lid with great care and placed it on the bedside table. Merlin didn’t move. Didn’t speak. And neither did Arthur as he got back in bed with Merlin. 

Merlin sighed when Arthur cupped his face with both his hands and leaned in to kiss Merlin again. The kiss was sweet and slow. And for some reason, Merlin thought, Arthur's lips tasted like skittles. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this. I really appreciate you taking your time to read my work.  
> Please do let me know what you think in the comments.
> 
> As always: English isn't my first language and I don't have a beta, so if there's anything that needs fixing, feel free to let me know.
> 
> Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and a lovely day to all of you who don't <3


End file.
